Les petted Princess and ran off. I went to chat
with her twin sister, Pat. Pat is the goalkeeper for the
team. It’s her job to stop shots and keep players from
scoring on the Clark goal.
When we spotted her, Pat was slipping on mitts.
She explained, “Without these mitts, my hands
would get red. I would get blisters. Plus, the mitts
help me get a grip on the ball.
“What’s the best tip for stopping a shot?” I asked.
“Well,” Pat said, “You need to have soft hands .”
“Soft hands?” I said. “You mean you have to use a
lot of hand cream?”
Pat grinned. “No, what I mean is that your hands
need to bend back when the ball hits them. They
need to bend so they can take the shock. If they don’t
bend, the ball will bounce off your hands and then
you will have to get set to stop the next shot. It’s
better to catch the ball if you can, or knock it out of
bounds .”
Just then a buzzer went off. It was time for the big
game.